The present invention relates to a small-scale communication and/or data processing apparatus with an indicating device integrated in the apparatus.
The term small-scale communication and/or data processing apparatus is understood below as mobile telephones, cordless telephones, PDAs, organizers, palmtops or the like whose size is such that they can be held in one hand when being operated. However, this also can encompass relatively small apparatuses which are not taken along as mobile apparatuses, but are permanently installed; for example, relatively small table telephones.
Such small-scale apparatuses frequently have an indicating device in the form of an integrated display on which the information to be indicated by the apparatus is represented. Moreover, this display usually serves to control the apparatus. There are two conflicting requirements for all these small-scale electronic apparatuses that communicate with a user via a display. On the one hand, the apparatus itself is to be as small as possible, while on the other hand the indicating element, that is to say the display, is to be as large as possible. However, there is a mandatory limit in the case of the displays previously used, in that the indicating surface cannot be larger than the surface of the apparatus.
In order to circumvent this problem, many apparatuses use interfaces with the aid of which the apparatus can be connected to a stationary indicating apparatus; for example, a display screen. This has the disadvantage, on the one hand, that the advantage of mobility is lost when such a display screen is used, while on the other hand the appropriate display screen is not available at every site. In the case of stationary small-scale apparatuses, an external display screen increases the overall space requirement of the apparatus, including the indicating system. Thus, instead of a small-scale apparatus, use could be made here of a larger apparatus with a correspondingly large display.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to create an alternative to this prior art.